Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes - though I'm wishing I wasn't celebrating my 39th birthday!  However, as a dear friend of mine explained to me about approaching my soon-to-be 40's, I am a C.I.T. - Cougar In Training.  For those of you who are unaware of this term, or the term of Cougar, my personal definition of a Cougar is a woman who is in her 40's and dates men in their 20's.  Of course, like Duke has stated, he doesn't see any 20 year old's lining up at our doorstep, but I told him to give me some time!

Also a belated happy birthday to my cousin Alice and my cousin Greg - we are all in the same week!

It was a quiet celebration with just Duke and Gannon, so that was nice, though we didn't have any number 9 candles, so I was either 34 or 43 (Gannon IS only 4 years old)...I'll share birthday pics soon!  I need to finish our camping trip and yes, my damn harddrive is still dead!  I need to send it in to the Geek Squad or something to get the data retrieved and they had better be able to do it or I will be heartbroken!  Serves me right to store ALL my photos in one place...

Anyway, back to camping...we hit the little swim/beach area on Friday, July 3rd and I have to be honest - I'm not much of a "swimmer" in places that I can't see the bottom to.  Plus I don't like dirt on my feet and I especially do not like to walk in water barefoot as I'm not sure what is lurking down there.  Of course neither of the boys cared and I had to chase down Brandyn's flip flops a few times before it floated off.

They loved their squirt guns....I think I spent the rest of the weekend reprimanding the both of them to NOT squirt people in the face.  I even confiscated them once, but those sneaky boys found them later.

Don't even ask...

Happy boys, not a great beach...and the water, yuk!  But it was that or deal with the damn heat, so in I went, though not happily.  One of the ladies from our group brought her lab down to cool off and he pooped into the water, which kind of freaked me out because guess who was splashing the water around into their faces????  Fortunately, the water was already murky, so what the hell right (I went right home and took a shower though).

Back at the camp...and this little girl LOVED Neo, and I was so proud that Neo not once grrrrr'd at her, though I was kind of sad to think that he really must hate Gannon! LOL

Gannon just couldn't get enough of the baseball, while Brandyn watched from the sidelines relaxing!  Later, it was Hawaiian themed night, so all the gents wore their Hawaiian shirts!

The boys in their tent....Gannon lasted no more than 3 hours.  I guess waking up in the middle of the night in the pitch dark and not knowing where you are could freak a kid out...

After putting the kids to bed, we then dragged them out to roast marshmellows and make smores - not a great idea to each chocolate and marshmellows before going to bed!  But it was vacation time so who cares!

On the Fourth, we were supposed to have decorated the boys bikes for a camp ground parade, but they for some reason were not interested (I think they were still sleepy)...so I just decorated them.  My little Patriots!  And no the streamers DID not last long...but it was cute while it lasted!

I actually thought Brandyn was saluting everyone as they rode by, but then found out later that was him just shading his eyes from the sun...

Though I could pass these two off as mini-patriots! LOL

It was off to the boating - Duke's cousin Dale, Debbie, Gabby and us all met up at the dock for a day filled with water, sun, and sand...LOTS of sun...Duke ended up with what I would refer to as 3rd degree burns...and you can see the area that he missed when he sprayed himself wth 50 SPF!  Thank god Gannon has my complexion and has good skin - my little brown baby!

My man in all his glory...

I do believe out of all of us, Neo had the best time ever!  He got to ride the boat, play on the beach non-stop (with all the kids around there were plenty of people to throw the ball for him), and all the dropped food he could eat!

Cleo, on the other hand, not so much fun...but she was smarter than I thought as when she would get hot, she would just go walk into the water to cool off.  Not crazy about the boat ride though...

So the first thing we did was go trout fishing, which believe it or not, I had a great time and so did the boys!  Thank you cousin DALE!

Dale, the master baiter...hahaha...

Gannon's fish!

 And then off to the beach - and would you believe I talked Gannon into riding the inner tube?  It was a first for me as well as for him AND Brandyn!  The first time, Gannon hung on for dear life and just kept repeating "No no no no no no....", but then after he was done, he wanted to go again and faster!  Brandyn meanwhile had watched Gannon and decided that he wanted to do it to so they all had a spin and a great time!  So proud that they were fearless!  I think playing around with the tubes on the beach helped them overcome their fear a bit...

Gannon and his cousin Gabby....

Roasting Duke...

So Gannon and I rode first with cousin Daleen & Dennis..

Then Duke went out for a ride while Dennis wakeboarded (not sure what the correct term here is...)

Gannon was the flag person....

Then the boys and cousin Gabby!

The look of abject terror...yet Gannon had that shi*t-eating grin on his face the whole time!

Gabby and her feet!

Then time to go home!  Long day but I think we all had a great time!

Duke and Gannon holding on...

Brandyn, retrospecting... LOL

Back at the campground, we had a fantastic dinner and then our group photos!  Apparently this is the 3rd year they have all gathered, so we were honored to have been included and plan to be back next year! 

Gannon actually broke out and break danced that night in front of everyone!  It was actually amazing that he had the nerve, but I think he was also trying to impress the girls that were there watching and dancing....

Saying goodbye the next day...

 Gannon sleeping in what falsely appears to be a very comfortable bed....

Packed up and ready to go!

And that was our weekend of camping!  See you guys next year!

Happy 4th of July to everyone! 

So this year, we got invited to join a group camping trip down near Medford, at a place called Lost Lake.  Pretty exciting for us as Duke has been wanting to go camping ever since we moved back from Singapore a few years ago, but never really planned ahead (ie, making reservations at a camp ground - recall last year, during Labor Day when Duke, clutching a list of nearby campgrounds in hand, decided on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend to take Gannon camping.  After driving to all 10 sites did it finally click with Duke that he had to have made reservations in advance and that he couldn't just show up on one of the major camping holidays of the year and just pitch a tent.  So Gannon, until this weekend, always thought roasting marshmellows were done with a Bic lighter.). 

We invited one of Gannon's best buds to join us on this trip as we thoguht it would make it more fun for Gannon - having Brandyn there along with 30 other kids definitely made the trip worthwhile!  But made us realize how much work TWO kids were to just having ONE...I'm pretty sure that on the average, I probably said the word "share" every 5 minutes for 4 days.  Gannon should know how to spell the damn word by now...

Anyway, we were panicking slightly on Thursday morning when we started to actually pack our car - with two adults, two kids, two dogs and one car, I have to say the only thing we forgot was the muffins we left in our refridgerator!  Not bad though what a waste of my time to write a list down on 12 post-it notes as if I had actually used those lists that day, I wouldn't have forgotten the muffins.

Could we have crammed another item into this car??????????

The boys before the long road trip ahead...

IT WAS HOT!  My god...did not expect it to be so hot...I think the next trip I may ask Duke to drop me off at the local hotel - A/C, nice bed, no dirt, no bugs, clean bathroom floor - yes, I am a total city girl.  Roughing it for me would be having an RV...which I'm trying to convince Duke to buy now, whether we camp once a year or not.  Luckily we were right there next to the bathroom and the later discovery of a local bee hive...nice....

So Duke took Gannon's training wheels off to pack the bikes on top of the car, but somehow missed bringing a piece that held the wheel to the bike, so Gannon attempted to ride his bike the first night we were there, but after falling off several times, he gave up that activity.  Though Brandyn and him did make a valiant attempt at trying to fix the wheel themselves - panicking Duke for a moment as they had found Duke's coveted tools and then casually tossed those said tools into the trees.

 Scott and Duke, doing what they both now they are best at....

Duke trying to reenact the spinning bat stunt...

Boys will be boys - baseball....

One thing I did discover over the weekend was how much boys, kids LOVE water - whether it comes from the hose, a balloon, squirt gun, sprinkler or lake, it doesn't mater as long as it is water, they can entertain themselves for HOURS!  One of Duke's friend's brought a sprinkler head for the kids to play in (GENIUS!) and I think Gannon and Brandyn spent a good 2 hours playing with it...amazing...

Having lunch before heading to the beach...

  Summer, not summer, summer, not summer...we have been fluctuating up and down for the past 3 months with our weather!  One day we have showers and clouds, the next, we are dying of heat!  It's unfortunate as Gannon hasn't had much opportunity to play out in the backyard, but we did one weekend where we were able to set up all his stuff so that he could be out in the pool and play in the sand.  The yard is not quite what we want it to be, but because we haven't decided if we are going to actually BUY this house, we wanted to invest as little money as possible into it until we decide.  Of course now that I've been laid off, we aren't sure what we are going to do though the option to move OUT of Oregon is much more realistic as we chose to stay  put simply because of my job with my company.  Now the world can be ours! LOL

So here is Gannon enjoying his new pool (that we had to fill twice because the first time, we forgot we have a fricking ski slope and so the round pool turned kidney shaped and all the water sloshed to the bottom - terrible way to build this house and manage the land!  No wonder the builder went bankrupt!!!! (That's a WHOLE another story...)

WHAT is it about kids and water??????  And bugs....below is Gannon's new friend the BUG!  YUK!  I'd rather he bring home frogs and snakes than insects....

Sometimes I can still see the "baby" in Gannon...boy I miss those days, yet I do love how he is able to function as a small human...we can get him to do more stuff for us now...

As soon as we can, we are going to get him signed up for martial arts - I think it is the Asian in him to gives him the natural forms...

Showing us how he holds a bat and swings it....amazingly enough, he has the same form as Duke...where he holds the bat up really high....

Showing us his throw...

Jumping into a very shallow pool...

Then our friends Sheri & Aric came by with their son Brayden to join in the fun!

Thus our attempt at summer begins!

 Well, apparently I'm not meant to have a boring and uneventful life - I was just notified last week that I was laid off from my job, which ironically, would have been 8 years in August!  SOOOO, having joined the ranks of Breast Cancer survivors I am now joining the ranks of the unemployed - anyone need an experience Marketing Manager????

To top off my already emotionally traumatizing week, my portable harddrive crashed on me, so Gannon's entire life in photos and video are currently in hiatus until I can get the damn thing sent out for data recovery!  Shame on me for not making a back-up though that is what I considered that portable harddrive to be.  The plus is I can at least be "pseduo" current with my postings, since the past 3 months are on that drive and unaccessible at this time.

Here we go!

In late June we attended the wedding of Duke's best friend from high school, Matt and his new wife Sandra - we had a great time and so did Gannon after his meltdown.  They held it at this place called Edgefield McMeniman's - and surprisingly enough,. that was Duke and my first time ever there and it was an amazing place!  Beautiful scenery and it reminded me of a college campus as they had buildings all over the place with their own names and speciality drinks, beer.  Very neat!

We left pretty early as it was on a Friday at 5 and we were worried about being stuck in traffic - that said, we arrived an hour and a half early and Gannon had fallen asleep.  THAT being said, we thought GREAT, he gets his snooze in, then he will be happy and good to go by the time the wedding started.  Somehow that backfired on us as when he woke up an hour later he was possessed!  Talk about a very public meltdown!

Before the meltdown in the car....

So Duke and I didn't really think about how Gannon looked sleeping in the booth until after I took the picture - then we kind of freaked because it looked like Gannon was sleeping in a coffin (so to add some realism Duke adjusted Gannon's arms)....we did check often to make sure he waa still breathing.

Duke and me before the storm, Hurricane Gannon....

And he's ALIVE....and PISSED OFF!

Duke's nature photo - supposedly there is a bird in the photo...

The reception line..

Still grouchy....

However, rose petals make the perfect distraction and defintiely draws the evil OUT!

It was pretty hot in the room, and Matt, between nerves and the heat was feeling it!

Beauthful harp music - very elegant yet simple wedding!  Congratulations to Matt & Sandra!

The beautiful bride!

We all read some vows as part of the ceremony...

And the first dance....

Duke was also the MC for the event so that was fun for him...plus he was asked to make a toast, so Duke wrote one out earlier in the week to prepare!

Gannon did great - after he found the other kids.  And we used to worry about Gannon not being social!!!!

Listening to the toasts...below is Josh, Matt's brother and best man...

Duke giving his speech.... 

Cutting the cake...

And of course all the kids were there waiting!

Gannon and one of Duke's school friend's Alfie...

Making new friends - Paul & William!

Alf, Duke, Josh and Gannon!

And there you have it!

Okay, so I am still approximately 4 months behind on my postings - I may never catch up and there is soooooo much news!

First, congratulations to Sean & Whitney - they welcomed their baby boy, Jace Aiden Mosley the first week of June!  Duke and Gannon drove down to Roseburg to visit, while I stayed home sick with allergies and a cold.

Secondly, congratulations to my brother Jerry & Britt, as they are expecting another baby boy in September!

And lastly, I got an all CLEAR on my CT scans in June, so no cancer!!!!!!!

So I had my final chemo treatment on March 12, 2009 and I was fortunate to have both my parents there to share with me that one last drip!  All the nurses were thrilled to see my dad again, as he was my companion throughout the initial part of chemo (the BAD part), and they had never met my mom since she was always home with Gannon, so it was nice for everyone to meet.  It was also a very bittersweet and emotional day for all of us, as it had been one hell of a journey - both for me and for my parents.  My mom was the most emotional as she felt it was not fair that I had to go through all that I had - but I made it, and I love you mom and dad for all your support!  I couldn't have made it without you guys that is for sure!

After my last chemo, we met up with Duke at a local restaurant to celebrate!

Not sure where he got that "spot" on his forehead....

With Cousin Corbin...then hitting those golf-wiffle balls...

Gannon is actually very very talented at hitting those tiny little balls with that skinny stick - he definitely has very good hand-eye coordination!

Still working on catching up with our postings! 

Duke and I are both recoverying well - and we are both attending physical therapy!  What a household of fun times...Gannon is doing great as well.  We made the decision to move him from his current daycare into another place that is more focused on learning and preparing him for PreSchool/Kindergarten as he has been after us to go to "school" for several months now.  He speaks, we listen!

Anyway, I just need to do a few more photo dumps before we are caught up -

Here is Gannon's birthday party - we initially were not planning a party of any kind other than just spend it with family.  The weekend before, for Valentine's day, we went to Tri-Cities to celebrate with my farmily, and then the weekend of his birthday, we were planning to just hang with Duke's family, but then the word got out at Gannon's daycare about his upcoming birthday and soon I got word that Gannon wanted to  have a party!  So we basically just invitied his daycare over, as I was still in the middle of chemo, though close to finishing up (in March Yeah!), and pretty tired.  However the party turned out great and Gannon had a fantastic time with all his friends!

The calm before the storm....

The two sisters that help care for Gannon during the day, Amy and Brooke!

They loved our garage...

Gannon and his Auntie Sheri....

Then we played pin the ball in the mitt...

It was pretty funny watching all of the kids....

After the party, we met up with Uncle Nick & Aunt Kelley for dinner...

Since Gannon's birthday actually landed on Monday, we had birthday cake again!

Happy 4th  Birthday! 

Had my 6th surgery in 19 months on April 8th and all went well, thank goodness!  Still recovering as I had a setback where I started having a fever around 100 degrees the day after surgery and it lasted through Sunday.  Sucked as I panicked!  During my chemo treatment (which ended in mid March) I was always on fever-watch - meaning if I ever had a fever of a 100 degrees that was my ticket straight to the ER as there was the possibility of infections other than just a simple viral one.  So when I started having a fever after my surgery I wasn't sure if the protocol still was in place - I think I called the doctor's office at least 4-6 times in one day trying to get a hold of ANYONE to advise me of what to do!  Luckily, they weren't concerned since I wasn't showing any signs of infection at the incision areas nor was I leaking stuff (gross).  I had to flash my dad several times so that he could make sure I was okay since I was heavily medicated! 

Then last week, Duke went in for reconstruction ACL surgery - when we first moved back from Singapore Duke went straight into surgery to fix his left knee ACL.  Well we think he never fully recovered nor properly rehabilitated his knee, as it turned out he had torn his ACL again, which was causing him more pain.  So in we went to OHSU in March for him to see another specialist and hence, his 3rd knee surgery.  Needless to say, it has been a rough month for our family, but thanks to my parents and Duke's mom, we made it through!!!!

Anyway, I'm still trying to catch up - back in January, Duke's brother Justin and his wife Kasey flew in from Phoenix to attend her company's holiday party (I did not know that companies still had the money to do that!)...so it was good to see them , since I missed them last year as I had just started chemo.

Here we met up with Sean, his new wife Whitney, Justin, Jerry and their friend Sara and of course, Gannon's cousin Lexi!  And Duke's Mom & Ron also showed up shortly after....

Gannon then got to open more Christmas presents that his Nana & Papa brought up....

Yes, he does fall asleep!  (With the help of melatonin....)

Sunday was the NFL playoffs and both Justin & Duke are avid Arizona Cardinal fans (who won if any one cares)...it was nice that the brothers got the chance to hang out and watch football as it has been a long time since all 4 of them have been together.

See, even Neo watches football...

I ended up taken Gannon and Lexi to one of Gannon's daycare buddies birthday party just to get the kids away for some fun of their own...

And of course the brothers do what they do - wrestle!

Then a few weeks later, we met up with Nick & Kelley to celebrate Nick's birthday!  Gannon of course promptly fell asleep and slept through the whole dinner...

For the actual Superbowl, we first went and hung out at Duke's friend Mike's house with our friend Sheri, Aric and their son Brayden (they were our old neighbors before we moved to Singapore and Aric's brother is Travis Buck who plays for the Oakland A's!).  Gannon and Brayden are identical in temperment, energy and attitude...

Our handsome little guy!

It has been confirmed!  Surgery number 6 has been scheduled for April 8th - but it is a good one as I finally get these damn expanders out and the silion ones in my chest!  The pain of the whole expansion process was unknown to me - I think that if I was aware of how painful the whole process would be, I may have hesitated before agreeing to the reconstruction aspect of breast cancer.  But I've managed so far, so what is one more surgery?

The bad news is that Duke is also due for some knee surgery - he is out for the year when it comes to athletics, even though he has had ACL surgery on both knees, he still hurt his left knee - the ligament needs to be replaced by a cadaver one, as both his hamstrings have been used for his ACL's.  They also discovered that he had some bone degeneration on his femur that will require him to have another surgery after he heels from this next one - they need to go in and put a patch on the bone to slow down the degeneration process and if he doesn't do this, he can end up with bad and painful arthritis for the rest of his life!  Nice...

Now if only Gannon can learn how to drive, we could possibly go in for surgery together at the same time!

Had my last treatment several weeks ago, so I'll update with pictures soon!  But other than this stupid cold/flu that has hit our family, we are doing well and I am starting work full-time in April! Yeah!  My life is almost ready to get back on track...

If I could just get caught up with all the pictures/events/updates, I would feel sooooo much better!  So sorry in advance for the next round of photo dumps....

Based on our pictures, it seems like we had a very eventful holiday...of course I was still in recovery, so it is all kind of a blur to me...

We had Gannon circle all the stuff he wanted for Christmas...so of course he circled everything!

Gannon and his advent calendar - and teaching him how to use the computer & mouse (cringe - I think it may still be too early yet!)

Then before my next treatment, I met two lovely ladies, Karen & Ann, for lunch...we had a great time!

Our best buds, Sheri & Aric (who's brother plays for the Oakland A's and is also from the Tri-Cities where I lived!) and their baby boy Brayden.  They used to be our neighbors before we moved to Singapore, and I'm so grateful that we got back in touch when we moved back!  Now they just live minutes away from us...Good to have friends like these!

Thanks you Uncle Justin & Aunt Kasey - the present traveled all the way to Montana before getting to Oregon!

Then via Facebook, Duke got back in touch with his best friend from high school, Matt, a Fulbright scholar currently living in Russia...we got to meet both him and his fiance Sandra and had a nice evening catching up!

And some random pictures...

Hanging out with Uncle Sean & Aunt Whitney....

The only picture I got of Gannon and Santa....

Gannon went sledding with Uncle Mike and his daughters Julia & Hannah, along with Daddy...this was at our local park just down the street from our neighborhood during that crazy snow storm...

Getting our tree...

Yes we have outgrown our house!!!!